Breidablik closure decision fair and legal, judge rules

PORT ORCHARD — A Kitsap County Superior Court judge has sided with the North Kitsap School District that its decision to close Breidablik Elementary School was made fairly and legally.

The School Board's decided in late February to close Breidablik, following a lengthy process that involved a volunteer School Closure Committee and the board itself.

The closure committee recommended Breidablik, Gordon and Pearson elementaries as the top three choices. The board opted to remove Pearson from that list, fearing the loss of that school could send students to the Central Kitsap School District. Wolfle Elementary joined the list of three in Pearson's place.

That was one of the factors Nicole Flowers and Kari McKinsey referred to when they sued. They said the board used location rationale to save Pearson and later Gordon, but didn't factor that in with regard to Breidablik. Nor did the board consider school test scores. The plaintiffs argued that the decision to close Breidablik was made before the final vote was taken and that the board did not use solid data to make that choice.

Judge Anna M. Laurie wrote in her decision that the court's role in the matter was to make sure the decision was made legally and that facts were not disregarded in making the decision.

Laurie cited a case from 2011 in saying the decision is not arbitrary when exercised honestly and when there is room for different opinions. The burden, she wrote, was on Flowers and McKinsey to prove that the district acted dishonestly.

Laurie wrote that Superintendent Patty Page used a reasonable method to get direction for the board from the committee and that the committee process wasn't legally necessary in the first place.

The judge also ruled that the district was within its right to rely on information provided by Dave Dumpert, the district's former maintenance director, whose opinions about Breidablik's roof and septic systems were disputed by Flowers and McKinsey. Laurie wrote that the board's use of location in keeping Pearson off the list was proper and that meeting minutes don't show the board tipping its hand early as to which school it would close.

"All indications in these minutes indicate an informed and reasonable decision by the School Board," Laurie wrote.

Page said she was pleased the decision came out the way it did. "We believed we would prevail. We knew that we followed the law and followed the board policy," she said.

Page said the district has not determined how much the court case cost the district to defend.